County of Union, New Jersey

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Union County, NJ – Load up your wagon with locally grown veggie seedlings, annual flowers, perennial plants and much, much more at the Rutgers Master Gardeners of Union County Spring Garden Fair and Plant Sale on Sunday, May 17 from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m., by the Trailside Nature and Science Center, 452 New Providence Road in Mountainside. The fair includes hundreds of plants for sale along with free activities, tours and demonstrations for all ages. Free admission – free parking! All proceeds help support the Master Gardeners many community projects and scholarship fund. For more information call the Union County Rutgers Extension office in Westfield, 908-654-9854 (ext. 4) or visit ucnj.org/rce.    

 

Union County, NJ – When the Lenape Park Nighthawks take to the fields this Saturday, there will be no cheering — You wouldn’t want to scare the birds away, would you?

This Saturday, May 9, is the 32nd annual World Series of Birding, where teams compete to identify birds across New Jersey.  There are also fun categories, such as the one the Nighthawks opted for, and they will compete more against themselves, looking to up their score from last year when they saw or heard 93 different species of birds.

“We wish the Lenape Nighthawks the best of luck,” said Union County Freeholder Chairman Mohamed S. Jalloh.

“Whether or not they beat their top score of two years ago, to date they have used the World Series to raise more than $7,000 for the New Jersey Audubon Society, and that is truly commendable,” he said. 

The Nighthawks will focus their search in Lenape Park, in the center of the County.

“We’ll start at 5:00 a.m. and go through ‘til six,” said team captain Frank Budney, stressing that “six” was 6:00 p.m.

Some state teams will start at midnight in High Point, at the northern tip of  the state, and make their way down to Cape May by the end of the day, Budney said, noting that those teams will often count more than 200 species of birds by the time they are done.

New Jersey is along the Atlantic Flyway, the path birds take when migrating between the northern and southern hemispheres. Many birds seen and heard in this area are just passing through to northern nesting areas. Others will be settling in for the summer.

“A lot of people think Union County parks are softball fields and baseball fields, but there are all these wildlife areas,” said Budney, who can be found bird-watching in Lenape at least once a week.

He is also one of several volunteers who lead bird hikes in the park, which the public is welcome to join.  Anyone interested in participating should send an email to birding@ucnj.org

Their morning expeditions utilize a number of trails through the park, including the East Coast Greenway, which passes through several of the 36 parks in the Union County Parks System.

While Lenape may pale in size to the County’s 2,200-acre Watchung Reservation, it can have its fair share of surprises, Budney said.

 A green heron continues to make the park its home, while last year, a pair of red-shouldered hawks — not to be confused with the more common red-tailed hawks –came to the park.

Although they have not been seen recently, that does not mean they have not returned to nest.

“They’re very secretive,” he said.

For information on the dramatic rescue of Lenape Park’s green heron last month, visit ucnj.org/press-releases.

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ELIZABETH, NJ – The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders is pleased to present an exhibit of paintings by Valerie Moreno in the gallery space at the Union County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, located in the historic St. John’s Parsonage at 633 Pearl Street in Elizabeth. A selection of her work entitled “Visual Vibrations” is on display at the Pearl Street Gallery through June 12. The public is invited to enjoy the exhibit during regular gallery hours, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

Valerie Moreno is a professional artist whose education includes a fine arts/education degree from the College of New Rochelle and graduate work in fine arts at Brooklyn College, the Arts Student League and Montclair State University. She taught fine arts for 30 years with the New York City Board of Education and was an Art Therapist for 20 years with NYU Medical Center.

Moreno has exhibited her paintings extensively throughout New York and New Jersey, including a one-woman exhibit at Johnson & Johnson Corporate World Headquarters, New Brunswick. She held the inaugural one-person exhibit at the Summit Medical Group, Berkeley Heights; a two-woman exhibit at Educational Testing Service, Princeton; group exhibits at Nabisco Gallery, East Hanover; Sotheby’s, New York; and an exhibit at Bloomingdale’s, Short Hills, of originally designed shopping bags by her students. Her commissioned paintings are in national and international private collections. Moreno also holds lectures, multimedia presentations and workshops on the work of Van Gogh, the Art of Painting on China and topics including art and travel.

Ms. Moreno is a Charter Member of the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and a member of the Visual Art Center of New Jersey in Summit; the New York State Art Teachers Association; the Millburn-Short Hills Art Center; and the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs.

“Color pervades my artwork as I fill each canvas with its own complexion of hues,” Valerie said. “As light falls on a shape, the tonal colors of the shape change and this creates a visual image which is always in a state of flux. With my brush, I try to capture a moment of this miracle of nature, as the playfulness of light shifts on the form creating visual vibrations of varied color.”

Union County artists (whose works can be hung on a wall) interested in exhibiting in the gallery space are welcome to apply. For more information about the Pearl Street Gallery or other programs, please contact the Union County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, 633 Pearl Street, Elizabeth NJ 07202. Free on-site parking is available. Telephone 908-558-2550. NJ Relay users can dial 711. Send E-mail to: culturalinfo@ucnj.org.

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Lifeguards are needed at the two Union County outdoor swimming pools for the summer from mid-June through Labor Day.  Current lifeguard certification required and weekends are mandatory.

If you are interested, please call 908-298-7849 Monday through Friday, 9am to 4pm.